PIFF 37

Dmae talked to Morgen Ruff, exhibition program assistant and Nick Bruno, pr/marketing assistant both from the Northwest Film Center. They filled in for Bill Foster who was ill (get well, Bill!) and talked the 37th Portland International Film Festival (PIFF 37), February 6th- 22nd.

OPENING NIGHT PARTY
Opening Night Film & Party tickets: $25 General, $20 Silver Screen Club Friend and Portland Art Museum and OMSI members. The evening, and all other PIFF and regular year-round Film Center screenings—more than 500 annually— are free for Silver Screen Director, Producer, Benefactor, and Sustainer members. Buy a PIFF pass in the form of Silver Screen Club membership now at http://nwfilm.org/donate/silverscreen/. Opening Night tickets go on sale on January 27 at nwfilm.org.

MORE INFO: During the last 37 years, Portland International Film Festival pulls together a multi-faceted experience with over 125 films and special events presenting a full spectrum of features, documentaries, shorts, and visiting artists – and featuring submissions for the Best Foreign Language Film Oscar and works by both returning masters and emerging talents.

This year’s Festival includes the return of the popular PIFF After Dark program, showcasing midnight movies like Ti West’s (THE HOUSE OF THE DEVIL) THE SACRAMENT and Ari Folman’s (WALTZ WITH BASHIR) THE CONGRESS for adventurous festival attendees. Contained within the PIFF 37 lineup is a sizable animation block with seven animated features on offer, including THE APOSTLE, MY MOMMY IS IN AMERICA AND SHE MET BUFFALO BILL, and the latest film by Portland-born animator Bill Plympton, CHEATIN’.

Other highlights of PIFF 37 include screenings of Tsai Ming-Liang’s (WHAT TIME IS IT OVER THERE?) STRAY DOGS, Rithy Panh’s THE MISSING PICTURE, Doug Pray’s (HYPE!) LEVITATED MASS, François Ozon’s (SWIMMING POOL) YOUNG AND BEAUTIFUL, Jillian Schlesinger’s MAIDENTRIP, Alain Guiraudie’s STRANGER BY THE LAKE, Anthony Chen’s ILO ILO and Claude Lanzmann’s (SHOAH) THE LAST OF THE UNJUST.

FULL SCHEDULE
The full PIFF 37 Program is available to the public online January 24 at nwfilm.org.

Dmae’s highlighted films include:

AFTERMATH

DIRECTOR: Wladyslaw Pasikowski - POLAND
A gripping psychological thriller, Aftermath tells the story of two estranged brothers, Franek and Josef, who discover a terrible secret that forces them to revise their perception of their family, neighbors, and the history of their nation.

TRAP STREET
DIRECTOR: Vivian Qu - CHINA

“A poignant and engaging mystery, Vivian Qu’s feature debut plunges us into the fascinating world of state surveillance in China as it follows a digital mapping surveyor’s investigation of an ‘off-the-grid’ hidden alley.

ERNEST AND CELESTINE

DIRECTOR: Stéphane Aubier, Vincent Patar, Benjamin Renner - FRANCE

Ernest and Celestine is the winner of France’s Cesar Award for Best Animated Feature and numerous other festival prizes. Tucked away in networks of winding subterranean tunnels lives a civilization of hard-working mice, terrified of the bears that live aboveground. Unlike her fellow mice, Celestine is an artist and a dreamer, and when she nearly ends up as breakfast for burly troubadour Ernest, the pair forms an unlikely bond.

BELLE
DIRECTOR: Amma Asante - GREAT BRITAIN

Often missing from the gorgeous settings, romances, and sophisticated language of English period dramas is the institution at the foundation of that refined life: slavery. Raised by her aristocratic great-uncle Lord Mansfield (Tom Wilkinson) and his wife (Emily Watson), Belle’s (Gugu Mbatha-Raw) lineage—the illegitimate, biracial daughter of a Royal Navy admiral in 18th-century Britain—affords her wealth and certain privileges, but the color of her skin keeps her on the outside looking in.

THE MISSING PICTURE

DIRECTOR: Rithy Panh - CAMBODIA

As the only family survivor of Pol Pot’s reign of terror (1975-1979), Cambodian-French director Rithy Panh has been searching for images all his life. While already a chronicler of Cambodia’s genocide, he shifts to his own childhood recollections with The Missing Picture. Unable to locate photos from the time, Panh uses hundreds of clay figures and dioramas to convey the action—the rice fields, the camps, the summary executions.

THE APOSTLE

DIRECTOR: Fernando Cortizo - SPAIN

Ramon, a convict who has escaped from jail, arrives in a remote Galician mountain village searching for a treasure hidden there years earlier. What at first appears to be a deserted town in which only a few old people live turns out to be a village under a mysterious curse that has existed for over 600 years.

SHORT CUTS V: OREGON FILMMAKERS' SHOWCASE

FEATURING....
DIRECTOR: Kimberly Warner - (Portland)
A young ballerina glimpses a hidden truth about her future as she teeters between light and dark, order and chaos. (16 mins.)